Presser foot for sewing machines



Dec. 11, 1934. c. F. RUBEL 1,984,286

PRESSER FOOT FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed Feb. 6, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet lDec. 11, 1934. C RUBEL PRESSER FOOT FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed Feb. 6,1933 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Dec. 11, 1934 NI T E D S PATENT. or FilCE 1,984,286 'PRESSEEYFQOT FOR SEWING'MACHINES Charles IF. iRubeLChicagmIlL, assignor to Union Special.MachineCompany, Chicago, Ill.,acorporation of Illinois I Application February 6, 1933, Serial No.655,521

. 7-jClaims. (01. 1:12-4:35)

tions of fabric sections, turning said edge portions into flat relationto each other and joining the same, by covering stitches. In anapplication filed by Normal V. Christensen, Harold J. Le .Vesco'nte andCharles F. Rubel, September 9, 1932, .Serial No. 632,444, there isdisclosed a .presserfoot havinga body portion with a needle openingtherethrough and a slot in front of the opening adapted to receive theupturned edge portions of the fabric sections for the trimming of thesame. Beneath the body portion. of the presser foot ,are flexible fabricengaging members; one at each side of the slot. The present invention,has todo with an improvement .in the type of presser foot shown inthisapplication. n

An objectfofithe invention is to provide apresser foot withyielding.devices'operatingsinfront of the needle and in advance ofthetrixnmernfor controlling the edge portionsqof -the..ffabric.sec

tion following a cross seam or a ridge produced by an elasticattached tothe fabric sections.

In the drawings which show by way [of illus- "tration oneembodimentof'the invention- Figure 1' is a top plan viewofa"presserffoothaving the invention applied thereto;

.Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of thepresserfoot; Fig. 3 is a perspectiveview of one of theyield- .ing members with the improved yielding orauxiliary pressing member associated therewith;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of one of the leaf depressing springs usedin connection with the flexible member and which bears thereon adjacentthe stitching point; o a

Fig. 5 is a perspective View of the'leaf spring used in connection withthe flexible member and bearing thereon at the front end of said member,

and i Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional vieWthtoughthe presser foot andshowing the .operationof the flexible members and theauxiliary'pressingmembers associated therewith.

The invention is directed to ap'resserfoot for sewingmachines which isespecially adaptedfor guiding and directing fabric sections sothat theymay be trimmed, after which the trimmededges are placed either inabutted relation or overlapped relation and united by stitchingthreads,"which stitching threads not only 'join'the edge portions butcover the raw edges of'the trimmed fabric sections. The -presserfoot'inludesa shanlr'por- ..tion.which is adapted to be attached to apresser bar .in the usual manner. Rigid withthe shank portion is thebodyportion of the foot which has aneedle opening therethrough, and inadvance of theneedleopeningis a channel or. slot extending inthe generaldirectionof the feed, from the front end .of the foot to a pointdirectly in .front of the needle opening. This channel receives theupturned edge portions and directs the same to the horizontallydisposedtrimming devices. Extend- .ing along the body portion of thefoot and underneath-the same at each side of theichannel or slot is aflexible member. "These flexible memling the same during the feeding,trimming and stitching. The features referred to per se, form .no partofthe. present invention, as they are shown, described and claimedin"t,heco-pending .al plicationof Christensen, Le Vesconte andflRubelreferred to above. The present invention has a particularly to dowithauxiliary pressing mem- I bers which are associated with andcooperate with the flexible members in the holding of the fabric.sections for [trimming and stitching.

These pressingmembers are located in advance of the trimmers and operateindependently of the flexible members which clamp the fabricsectionsagainst the feed or the work support. The purpose of these pressingmembers isto hold the fabric when the flexible members are raised by apassing cross seam or elastic which has'been attached to the fabricsections. The cross seam or elastic will cause the flexible members tobe raised, and these auxiliary pressing members will Referring more indetail to the drawings, the

presser foot consists of abody portion 1 which is attached to a presserbar '2. The body portion 1 is provided 'with a needle opening 3 throughwhich the stitching needles pass. The stitch forming mechanismasillustrated is of the fourneedle edge covering type disclosed in theapplication referred to, but it is apparent that'any type of coverstitch forming mechanismsnay be used. The 'bodyportion of the presserfoot in front of. the needle .openingis provided with a channel or slot4 which receivesthe upturned edge portions of thevfabric sections. Thisslot terminates in front of the needle opening and extends in thegeneral direction of the line of feed. Atthe rear end of the channel orslot are the trimming devices consisting of a stationary "trimmingblade'fi-and a movable trimming'blade bers engage the fabric andcooperate in control- 6, which operate to trim the upturned edgeportions of the fabric sections. in rear of the trimming devices isshaped so as to turn down the edge portions for stitching, and said edgeportions may be either abutted or overlapped, depending upon theconstruction of the presser foot and the arrangement of the trimmingdevices relative to the work support. The means for turning down theedge portions is illustrated diagrammatically at '7.

The body portion of the presser foot is rigidly attached to thesupporting shank therefor, and attached to the body portion of thepresser foot and extending underneath the same are flexible members 8and 9. These flexible members extend along the channel or slot, and fromthe front end of the foot to the rear end thereof. The flexible member 9is shown in perspective in Fig. 3 of the drawings. The two members aresimilar in construction, and a description of one will answer for theother. The flexible member at the forward end thereof is bent back asindicated at 10 and is slotted as indicated at 11. At the rear end, saidflexible member is bent upwardly and slotted as indicated at 12.Associated with each flexible member is an auxiliary pressing member orfinger 13 which as shown in Fig. 3, is formed integral with the flexiblemember 9. This is purely for the purpose of providing a supporting meansfor this auxiliary pressing member. It may be otherwise formed andsupported, as it operates entirely independently of the flexible member9. The flexible member is provided with a projecting portion 14 locateddirectly at the rear end of this auxiliary pressingmember 13. Saidauxiliary pressing member is bent upwardly as indicated at 15 in orderto shorten the overall length of the same so as to prevent contact withthe projecting portion 14 of the flexible member 9. The flexible member9 is slipped on to the forward end of the presser foot and the slot 11placed in contact with a pin 16. The portion 12 of the flexible member 9extends up along the rear end of the foot and straddles a lug or pin 17.As noted above, the presser member 8 is similar in construction andsimilarly attached to the presser foot as this flexible member 9, and italso has associated therewith a similarly constructed auxiliary pressermember 13*.

The flexible member 9 is held on the presser foot by a yielding clampingplate 18. Said plate is secured to a lug projecting laterally from thebody portion of the foot by means of a screw 19 which is threaded intothe lug. Said plate has a raised portion and a downwardly bent andportion forming a recess 20 in the under face of the forward endthereof. When this plate is attached to the lug on the presser foot, therecess 20 engages the forwardly projecting end portion of the flexiblemember 9 and bearing on the same will tend to hold said flexible memberpressed against the under face ,of the presser foot. There is a similarclamping plate 18* secured by a screw 19 to the other side of the bodyportion of the presser foot which holds the flexible member 8 in placethereon.

Associated with the flexible member 9 is a leaf spring 21 which has abackturned end portion 22 adapted to be attached to the laterallyprojecting lug carrying the clamping plate 18. This leaf spring extendsalongside of the flexible member 9 and is provided with a laterallyprojecting member 23 which overlies and bears on theflexible member 9slightly in advance of the needle open- The presser foot ing. The leafspring 21 has a projecting member 24 at the rear end thereof whichfreely moves in a recess in the body of the presser foot. The purpose ofthis leaf spring is to provide a yielding pressure against the flexiblemember in the region of stitching, so that when the flexible member isflexed or bent by a cross seam passing under the forward end of thefoot, this leaf spring will hold the flexible member in contact with thefabric in the stitching region. The same is true when the cross seam ispassing from the rear end of the foot and is still flexing the member.There is a similar leaf spring 21 associated with the flexible member 8,and said leaf spring has a laterally projecting finger 2?, whichoperates in the same manner on the flexible member 8. The flexiblemembers, leaf springs, and clamping plate are all similar inconstruction to those described in the co-pending application referredto. The present invention has to do with these auxiliary pressingmembers 13 and 13 which are associated with these flexible members. Whenone or both of the fabric sections to be joined having cross seams orribs therein extending at right angles to the edge of the fabricsections, pass beneath the presser foot, the flexible members will beflexed or caused to contact with the body portion of the foot in theregion of the passing cross seam. When this cross seam is passing fromthe forward end of the foot to the trimming region, the edge portions ofthe fabric sections following the cross seam must be clamped and heldfirmly against the work support, or the feed during the stitching cycle,so as to prevent the edge portions from creeping or separating, and thusforming an imperfect seam. The auxiliary pressing members will drop atonce on to the edge portions of the fabric sections when the cross seamleaves the same. At this time, the flexible members in advance of thecross seam are out of contact with the fabric sections, but theauxiliary pressing members will hold the fabric sections properlypositioned, so that when the cross seam passes the trimming devices, theedge portions will be properly positioned for the continued trimmingthereof. While the cross seam is passing beneath the auxiliary pressingmembers, they function in the same way as the flexible members and yielduntil they are brought into contact with the body portion of the presserfoot. When there are two fabric sections on one side of the foot and oneonly on the other, as shown in Fig. 6, this auxiliary pressing memberwill take a position, the same as the flexible member, so as to firmlyhold the fabric section of a single thickness. If the cross seam is inthis single thickness of fabric, as shown in Fig. 6, the auxiliarypressing member functions in the same way, and will properly clamp andhold the edge portion thereof which follows the cross seam as it passesto the trimming devices and the stitching mechanism.

It is obvious that the auxiliary pressing members may be otherwiseconstructed and mounted without departing from the spirit of theinvention as set forth in the appended claims.

The essential feature resides in the fact that there are auxiliarypressing members located wholly in advance of the trimming devices andwhich can yield independently of the foot sections or of the flexiblemembers associated therewith, for the proper clamping of the edgeportions following the cross seam to the trimming devices. 1

Having thus described the invention, what I formed integral therewith anauxiliary pressing claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-- 1. A presser foot for sewing machines comprising a body portionhaving a needle opening therethrough and a slot in front of the openingadapted to receive the upturned edge portions of fabric sections for thetrimming of the same, said presser foot having a yieldable fabricengaging member at each side of the slot extending substantially fromthe front end of the presser foot to the rear end thereof, and ayielding auxiliary pressing member located at each side of said slot andextending along the same from the front of the presser foot to a pointin advance of the trimming devices and operating independently of theyielding fabric engaging members for controlling the edge portions ofthe fabric sections in front of the trimming devices.

2. The combination of a presser foot having a body portion with a needleopening therethrough and a slot in front of the opening adapted toreceive the upturned edge portions of fabric sections, trimming devicesassociated with the presser foot and operating to trim the upturned edgeportions, said presser foot having yielding devices extending from theforward end thereof to the rear end thereof and disposed at oppositesides of the slot, and auxiliary pressing members carried by the presserfoot and located along the edge portions of the slot between the forwardend of the presser foot and the trimming devices and operatingindependently of the yielding devices for clamping and controlling theedge portions in front of the trimming devices.

3. A presser foot for sewing machines comprising a body portion having aneedle opening therethrough, a slot in front of the opening adapted toreceive the upturned edge portions of fabric sections for the trimmingof the same, a flexible fabric engaging member at each side of the slotextending from front to rear of the foot beneath the body portion, meansfor supporting said flexible members so that they are free to yieldindependently, and an auxiliary pressing member associated with eachflexible member and located between the flexible member and the edge ofthe slot in advance of the trimming devices forcontrolling the edgeportions of the fabric sections.

4. A presser foot for sewing machines comprising a body portion having aneedle opening therethrough, a slot in front of the opening adapted toreceive the upturned edge portions of fabric sections for the trimmingof the same, a flexible fabric engaging member at each side of the slotextending from front to rear of the foot beneath the body portion, meansfor supporting said flexible members so that they are free to yieldindependently, each flexible member having member which is disposedalong the edge of the slot and in advance of the trimming devices andwhich operates independently of the flexible memher for controlling theedge portions of the fabric sections.

5. Apresser foot for sewing machines comprising a body portion having aneedle opening therethrough, a slot in front of the opening adapted toreceive the upturned edge portionsof fabric sections for the trimming ofthe same, a flexible fabric engaging member at each side of the slotextending from front to rear of the foot beneath the body portion, meansfor supporting said flexible members so that they are free to yieldindependently, independent spring means bearing on the flexible membersin the region of stitching, each flexible member having formed integraltherewith an auxiliary pressing member disposed along the edge of theslot in advance of the trimming devices and operating independently ofthe flexible member for controlling the edge portions of fabricsections.

6. A presser foot for sewing machines comprising a body portion having aneedle opening therethrough and a slot in front of the opening adaptedto receive the upturned edge portions of the fabric sections for thetrimming of the same, said presser foot having a yielding fabricengaging member at each side of the slot extending substantially fromthe front end of the presser foot to the rear end thereof, and ayielding auxiliary pressing member at one side of said slot andextending along the same from the front of the presser foot to a pointin advance of the trimming devices and operating independently of theyielding fabric engaging members'for controlling the edge portion of afabric section in front of the trimming devices.

'7. A presser foot for sewing machines comprising a body portion havinga needle opening therethrough and a slot in front of the opening adaptedto receive the upturned edge portions of the fabric sections for thetrimming of the same, said presserfoot having a yielding fabric engagingmember at one side ofthe slot extending substantially from the front endof the presser foot to the rear end thereof, and a yielding auxiliarypressing member located at the same side of the slot as said yieldablefabric engaging member and extending along said slot from the front ofthe presser-foot to a point in advance of the trimming devices andoperating independently of the yielding fabric engaging member forcontrolling the edge portion of the fabric section with which itcontacts in front of the trimming devices.

CHARLES F. RUBEL.

